


Tragic

by scarlet_malfoy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:33:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11637126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarlet_malfoy/pseuds/scarlet_malfoy
Summary: Remus gets a sunburn in winter, and Sirius has a Christmas surprise.





	Tragic

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my aisai, lap_otter, for being my beta for this circa something like 2006.

**December 24th, 1976. Sixth year.**

 

“Your nose is red.” Sirius plops down on the couch next to Remus.

“Bit late on the uptake, aren’t you?” A page is turned idly. Remus doesn’t look up.

“Actually, it’s more like your face. Your _whole entire face_ , Moony. It’s red. And also, so is your nose. Like Rodolpho the red-nosed rain-dork!”

“It’s _Rudolph_ the red-nosed _reindeer_. And I _know_.”

“What happened to make your face look like that?”

Remus sighs, book-marking his page and looking over at Sirius, finally. “James didn’t tell you?”

“Well, he told me you got sunburned, but I didn’t know that was possible in the winter. I thought he was lying. Is it just your face?”

“No, actually. It’s everywhere. I went tramping about in the snow, naked.” Remus fights desperately to keep a straight face.

Sirius looks vaguely entertained by the idea. He lifts his eyebrows and stares, causing Remus to roll his eyes.

“Obviously you’re lying, Moony.”

“Obviously,” Moony agrees.

Sirius shivers, and moves closer to Remus unintentionally-on-purpose. “We’re so far away from the fire,” he murmurs plaintively, as he looks longingly in the direction of the common room fireplace, ablaze and adorned with Christmas stockings.

“It hurts my face.”

“Cold, empty, dark common room corners hurt my _soul_.”

“You can go sit by the fire if you want.” Remus indicates his book. “I’m fine.”

“Your face hurts. You’re not fine.”

“It’s not that bad.”

“You’re making funny faces whenever you talk, which leads me to believe that it hurts when you move the skin on your face. I’m right, I know it!” Sirius speaks with all the intensity of a five year old insisting there is such a thing as Father Christmas.

“Full Moon tomorrow.” Remus says quietly, by way of explanation. He smoothes his hand over the surface of his book, making small circles. Sirius’ eyes widen a bit in understanding. Healing spells have almost no effect on Remus the day leading up to and the day following the Full Moon.

“Moony, why’d you sit outside all day then?” Sirius sounds mad, but he isn’t. Not at Remus.

Remus makes a vaguely helpless gesture with his arms. “I just wanted to read outside! Thought it’d make a nice change. I honestly didn’t take into consideration that I might get a sunburn in winter. Just didn’t think about it. And it’s really _not_ that bad.”

“You look like a House Elf with a bad cold.”

“It’ll go away. Maybe tomorrow… maybe afterwards, it’ll be gone.”

“Does the sunburn make your face shiny like that, too?”

“No. Lily had some aloe up in her dormitory. It’s made from a Muggle plant. It helps.”

Sirius falls silent, but doesn’t move closer to the fire. Remus fingers his book tentatively, and wonders what Sirius is waiting for.

“So, James had this idea,” Sirius says finally.

“Oh?” Remus tries to keep the curiosity out of his voice.

“ _Oh_ , yeah.”

“Dare I ask?”

“It’s about Christmas.”

Remus looks up suddenly, book clutched in both hands. “What about it?”

“Well, you see,” Sirius turns and sits cross-legged on the couch, “you’re going to have a very miserable Christmas, what with tomorrow being what it is and all that.”

“Tragic, isn’t it?” Remus tries not to be bitter about it. It isn’t like he doesn’t spend every day of the holidays relaxing and lazing about, catching up on his reading, just like he would have done on Christmas.

“But that’s where Prongsy’s idea comes in, don’t you see? So, we want to have our own Christmas!”

Remus stares. “What?”

“Well, obviously you’re going to be in a sour mood all day tomorrow, and then the four of us are going to be busy all night-“

“The _four_ of us are not… it’s Christmas, Sirius, I don’t expect you to—”

“Shut up, Moony. I don’t care what you say, I can’t hear you, la la la!” Sirius sticks his fingers in his ears and glares defiantly.

“Sirius…”

“Not another word! Not until you stop talking like a crazy insane selfless sun burnt person.”

The corner of Remus’ mouth twitches up. He fights down a full fledged smile. “I’m afraid I can’t do anything about the sun burnt part.”

Sirius takes his fingers out of his ears and leans close to Remus. Their shoulders brush.

“We want to have Christmas the day after the day after Christmas. That’s what we want, and that’s what we’re going to do, whether you like it or not. Dumbledore’s okay with it, he’s going to send a Christmas feast right up into our dorm, the brilliant old bat! I didn’t even have to bribe him, it was his idea.” Sirius bounces a bit throughout his explanation, and Remus inches closer and closer to the end of the couch; as close as he can to it, considering he was already in the corner in the first place. But he smiles.

“So do you like my idea? Do you?”

“I thought it was James’ idea.”

“Towards the end it was a collective effort, really. It’s as much my idea as it is James’. It’s not Peter’s at all, though.”

Remus can only smile. Sirius somehow keeps getting closer. He feels the heat radiating off Sirius’ face, but thinks that’s probably not natural… it’s probably because of the sunburn.

Probably.

Is Sirius going to kiss him? Because if Sirius’ face continues along on its trajectory path, it will inevitably be intimately nearer his own. How weird would that be, he thinks, and shivers, even though his face is on fire.

But Sirius doesn’t kiss him. He gets close enough to whisper, “Happy Christmas, Moony,” in his ear, and then bounds doggishly off the couch, and pounces on James, seated across the common room, and much nearer the fire.

Remus shakes his head, an odd smile on his face, and presently returns to his book.


End file.
